Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 28.djvu/214

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MEMORABLE SERVICE.

If it was General Weisiger, and not General Mahone, whose service on the 3oth of July, 1864, was especially memorable, as one would infer from the editorial of The Times under consideration, President Davis was in error when, three days after the battle he promoted General Mahone to a major-generalship, and made his promotion date from the day of what Mr. Davis referred to as " his memorable service" in the following official communication to General Lee, published at page 1156, of serial 88 of the War Records:

" RICHMOND, August 2, 1864. "General R. E. Lee, Petersburg. Va. :

' ' Have ordered the promotion of General Mahone to date from the day of his memorable service, 3Oth of July. Have directed the appointment, temporary, of Captain Girardey as recommended' Has your attention been called to Colonel Dunavant or DeSaussure, temporarily to supply the place of General Elliott ? I have enquired as to the position of Colonel Butler, and whether he can be detached.

"JEFFERSON DAVIS."

If the work of the Virginia Brigade under General Weisiger was a complete triumph, and General Mahone's work was as nothing, as one would suppose from a perusual of The Times' editorial, General Bushrod Johnson, whose lines had been broken, was under a false impression as to the true state of things, when in his official report made August 20, 1864, and published at page 787, of serial 80 of the War Record, he said:

' ' To the able commander and gallant officers and men of Mahone's Division, to whom we are mainly indebted for the restoration of our lines, I offer my acknowledgements for their great service."

If The Times is right in giving to Weisiger, and not to Mahone, the credit of what was done by the Virginia Brigade in the battle of the Crater, there are many men in the brigade who participated in the engagement, who, for nearly thirty-five years have been greatly mistaken in their impressions of it.

GENERAL WEISIGER' S BELIEF.

That General Weisiger, who gallantly commanded his men in this as in many other previous and subsequent engagements, believed